


LISTEN

by catisacat



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-04-26 17:10:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5013016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catisacat/pseuds/catisacat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chell wanders a desolate planet and finds herself missing Aperture.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Endless Boredom

**Author's Note:**

> Just missed actively creating Portal fancontent so have some post-Portal 2 hypothetical junk.

Chell had been wandering the wheat field for longer than she could keep track.

A week? Two weeks? Somewhere in that ballpark.

There didn’t seem to be any semblance of human life left on the planet.

In some dark, sick corner of her mind Chell considered going back to Aperture. At least there was something other than mind numbing boredom there.

She’d seen a city in the distance but it was obviously abandoned, destroyed. No point in going there. Even if there were survivors she didn’t want to know if they’d be friendly or not.

With murderous robots at least you know where you stand.

Food was scarce though. She’d found a small abandoned farm to hole up in though but even with its decent supply of canned food in the cellar she knew it would run out eventually.

She sat on the porch of the farmhouse staring out.

Goddamn she was really starting to hate the sight of wheat.

Speaking of, she wondered what had become of her former companion. She looked up. Aperture technology was extremely advanced, he was probably stuck up there. Floating. Alone.

Looking back down she figured it was probably not much different than her situation.

Except less fucking wheat.

She sat there like that in silence as the sun slowly set.

She missed the mechanical hum of the facility.

She’d found some books in the house. Some classics which she liked and some godawful romance novels. Other than that there was nothing else to occupy her mind.

Several weeks later the food supplies were still there but she knew she’d have to find another source. A month at the latest. It’d be better to pack up what was left and try elsewhere. This was a good base, though. Hard to lose, easy to defend. Plus the river that ran behind it was a perfect source of water. Maybe visit the city and return with supplies.

‘Tomorrow,’ she thought to herself, staring vacantly at the city.

Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought.

She was up bright and early the next day as she crammed cans into a large backpack she found in the farmhouse.

He hoisted the massive thing on her back as she headed towards the city.

She didn’t think she could hate wheat more until she was plodded through it again. She could see her destination in the distance. Her long fall boots helped with running but not on terrain like this.

She contemplated trying to take them off for the millionth time. They were uncomfortable but Chell… Chell didn’t really know if they COULD come off. She was a little scared to know the answer.

It turned out to be a blessing that she didn’t try as her foot hit a hard metal object hidden in the wheat.

She looked down to the now confused and complaining sphere.

It faced away from her but she could take a well educated guess on who it was, going off the familiar and unceasing voice. 

She hooked the toe of her boot under one of the wildly flailing handlebars and flipped the orb over so Wheatley was facing her.

“Get your hands off of me I have half a mind t- oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! It’s you! You’re-” he paused for a fragment of a second before skirting over that he had no earthly clue what her name is, “How are you here, mate? I mean I know how I got here- unpleasantly and from the sky- but I highly doubt that’s how you ended up here. You don’t even look singed or anything.”

Chell stared at him then looked up. She hadn’t noticed it before due to focusing on the city but there was a long tract of scorched dirt leading up towards where Wheatley sat now. He must have kept rolling after initial impact.

She looked back down at the burnt and dirty robot.

He blinked twice before continuing, “Oh right, the whole brain damage not talking thing and possibly whatever you did to get out might have worsened that.”

Chell frowned.

“Doesn’t matter, doesn’t matter,” he said, pulling it out of his memory banks he knew he had to apologize to her, “I’m glad I ran into you or rather I guess you ran into me. I didn't think I’d ever see you again! Look, look, I’m sure you hate me and I get it what’s not to hate? What with the tried to kill you and everything but that’s not really my fault I mean you CANNOT imagine how WEIRD it is to have something else in your brain.”

Chell tapped her foot, looking unimpressed.

“Sorry, sorry, making it about me aren’t I? I just wanted to apologize. I mean, I just did, but for something else I wanted to apologize for what I did. You know. The facility, the whole part where I tried to kill you, all that.”

She stopped tapping her foot, looking less irritated.

“Yeah, yeah, I mean it you know. Spent a lot of time up there. Not fun. Just stuck alone up there with my thoughts. Thinking about what I did, why I was there. Never bloody thought I’d actually get to apologize though.”

He paused again, slightly longer. Examining her. He didn’t have the best people reading skills. Probably not actual reading skills either. She didn’t look angry at least.

“Well?” he said, unable to leave a silence well enough alone, “What do you say? Or… or gesture, really.”

In response Chell crouched down, carefully picking Wheatley up by the open loops on his sides.

He didn’t protest, making a point not to crush her fingers with his moving plates, as he sincerely hoped this was her accepting his apology and not going to toss him in the river.

He was much less heavy than she assumed he’d be.


	2. Endless Chatter

He found himself sitting on a couch, being scrubbed at with a coarse brush. Unbeknownst to him it was actually a dog one.

He wanted to protest the cleaning but even a moron knew that it wasn't good for dirt to get into mechanical parts. He managed to survive the trip back to earth, he didn’t want to break for something as silly as a little dirt.

While he tried to remain diligently still he still twitched and moved erratically as he talked. Mostly he was just babbling about the outside world right now.

"And- wow- I mean I have heard about the sky but I never imagined it would be so bloody massive! It's huge! Have you ever seen that before? Absolute madness.”

She seemingly ignored him, continuing to scrub out the offending dirt.

“Who would have thought that THIS was that was up here? Not me, let me tell you. I don't even have names for half the things I saw as I crashed. I think that big thing in the distance is a ‘city.’ No idea what that yellow stuff everywhere is though.”

“Wheat,” Chell answered nonchalantly.

“What? No not who I am, mate. The yellow stuff,” Wheatley prattled on, not even noticing the fact Chell had actually answered him in plain English.

“No. You're Wheat-LEY. That's just wheat,” she answered again, just as calmly.

“What like… I'm named after that?”

She didn't answer this time. Partially because she didn't know, partially because she didn't care.

Suddenly something whirred into place in Wheatley’s brain. And also his circuitry. Chell jerked her hand out of his metal casing with a nose of irritation. Almost lost a finger there.

“You can talk?! Wha… why didn't…” he stuttered as his surprise slowly melted into anger, “You could talk this whole time?! Why didn't you answer me?! Made me look like a bloody moron! Is that how you get your kicks?! Unbelievable. Why?”

Chell answered simply, “Her.”

“Her? What do- oh you mean HER,” the realization dawned on him surprisingly quick, “Didn't want to give her the satisfaction of an answer. Cheeky. She wasn't always there though, you know. Still rude. Still not forgiven.”

Chell gave him a look that made it loud and clear that she didn't give a fuck.

He tried to return the look but lacked the facial features, “Say Apple.”

“Asshole,” she smirked.

“You! You are INCREDIBLY rude. I almost think I liked it better when you pretended to be mute. You're probably still brain damaged anyways. Shouldn't even waste my breath on you. Not that I can breathe but… oh, you get the point!”

There were a few beats of silence.

“Do you even know your own name?” he asked.

“Chell.”

“Chell? What kind of name is that?”

“What kind of name is Wheatley?”

He puffed up in indignation as best he could. So far all of her longer sentences were being used to insult him and he was not a fan.

“You're just like her, you know that?!” he started, unaware of the can of worms he was about to open, “Nitpicking and mockery. Thinking you're sooooo much better than-”

His tirade was cut short as Chell unceremoniously dumped him on the ground.

He protested, flailing his panels until he was at least not stuck staring at the ground, “Why I- How dare you?! You're making me rather not miss being space, you know. Rude.”

She ignored him while he continued to complain answering in a surprisingly decent imitation of him, “Fatty, fatty, no parents.”

“I'm a robot, of course I don't have paren- oh.”

There was a surprisingly long silence.

“I'm not like her,” he finally said.

“She's smarter.”

Right back into prattling away in indignation.

Another long silence finally broken when he mumbled to himself about not being a moron.

She mimicked it back at him.

“I already said I was sorry…”

“Act like it.”

He grumbled, tapping one of his panels on the ground, “... sorry.”

She didn’t say anything but she picked him up and placed him back on the couch. She resumed carefully removing dirt from his panels.


End file.
